in the New York Legislature since 2011. Castellano and his organization are working to move it along. This organization is new and only has a Facebook page — facebook.com/ GmoFreeNewYork — but has plans for a website. “We only need a few states to pass a GMO labeling bill to make it standard throughout the country,” Littman says. “The food companies will not make different packaging for different states.” HealthyLife tried — in vain — to get a statement from the FDA regarding GMO labeling. Even the famed Dr. Oz only had a written statement from the FDA when he aired a show on GMOs. It read: “We recognize and appreciate the strong interest that many consumers have in knowing whether a food was produced using bioengineering. FDA supports voluntary labeling that provides consumers with this information and has issued draft guidance to industry regarding such labeling.”
What’s a consumer to do?
The Non-GMO Project is a nonprofit that was started in 2005 by natural-food retailers to provide customers with better information and reliable non-GMO choices. The project created a third-party standard and verification program to test products for GMOs. If deemed GMO-free, the product can display the non-GMO seal. Currently, the project has 6,100 non-GMO-verified products with another 2,500 in the process of being verified. All told, 689 brands are enrolled in the verification program. “Often people feel overwhelmed by the prevalence of GMOs in processed foods,” says Courtney Pineau, assistant director of the project. “It is important to remember that even small changes can be meaningful.” Her tips: • Remember that the most common GMOs are corn, soy and canola. Check the ingredients lists on every nonorganic product for this trio. • Buy organic products as much as possible since they cannot intentionally contain GMOs. • Start with one meal at a time and find non-GMO alternatives. For example, start with breakfast and kick out the high-GMO-risk breakfast cereal. • Check out nongmoproject.org for a list of all products that have received the non-GMO seal. “I want to live in a GMO-free world,” says Littman. “Others might not, and that is their choice. But everyone should have the ability to decide if they want to eat GMOs, and until there is labeling, we have no choice.” She adds that since the commercial sale of GMOs only started in 1994, research on long-term effects on humans is scarce. Until there is labeling, there is an invaluable website, nongmoshoppingguide.com, which lists non-GMO products, including ones that are GMO-free but have not received the non-GMO Project’s seal. It also lists the products that are awaiting verification from the project. They even have a free iPhone app that you can take shopping to immediately see if a product is GMO-free. HL
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